Where to find solid learning materials?

[klaus_engel]

First off hello I'm Klaus and new to the forums here. I have just starting using the Ren'py tool a few weeks ago cause it seemed like the best method to get some of my project ideas out of the way. So anyway when I get a new tool I go to the infinite wisdom/dumpster fire that is the internet for tutorials and learning as I fill the gaps with trial and error. That's where I ran into my current problem. A lot of the vids and pages I see are from a few years ago using a version of the tool that is vastly different from the one that is offered now.

This is problematic cause you can't really follow along when none of what they show is the same. So far I managed to get some things to work via trial and error. However I would feel better when I can find a source I can go to for the rest of my learning. So I ask this: where should I go to get up to date learning materials? Do I A) Keep beating my head against my keyboard till something works? B) Did a I miss a YouTube channel or forum thread that has all the materials I need? Or C) Come here and ask the community?

Any advice or a point in a direction would be seriously appreciated. I learned Photoshop and other tools with just YouTube alone but this one is a bit different you know?

[Mutive]

The community is good. There's also a lot of official documentation that I've found very helpful.

[klaus_engel]

It's nice to know that I can come here with questions, assuming the more specific the better. However it's hard for me to decipher what's going on with the official documentation cause some of the pages have an out of date label or know where to actually put it in the code. If a twelve year old can figure it out then I guess I can too eventually.

So long story short if I hit a snag just hit the community up on either here or the discord and hope for the best? Also do you have links to some of those sources?

[Wight]

The documentation here seems to be reliably up to date: https://www.renpy.org/doc/html/
It's this one that has articles that are out of date: https://www.renpy.org/wiki/renpy/doc/cookbook/Cookbook
I haven't been using Ren'Py for very long, but I think you'll be fine with using tutorials that are only a few years old. Those generally seem to work fine.

The launcher comes with a tutorial that covers a wide range of the basics and some of the more advanced stuff, as well as a very simple game to demonstrate how the script works. The Quickstart article is probably the best place to get started if you're completely new to this sort of thing.
https://www.renpy.org/doc/html/quickstart.html

You can also check out the Cookbook subforum for code that people have already made that could come in handy. You could learn some new things here by tinkering with the code yourself to help gain a better understanding.
viewforum.php?f=51

There's also a subforum specifically to ask questions related to Ren'Py. Usually I get the answer I'm looking for by looking through the documentation or searching my question to see if someone else has already asked it before and got an answer.
viewforum.php?f=8

[klaus_engel]

Thank you so much for sharing the information. I guess I wrote this post out of frustration cause I've been watching the Toxemity turorials and they were completely not right compared to how Ren'py is now. Pretty much had to teach myself how to code in the environment. Also I hit a road block trying to change the default mouse cursor cause the code they used and code someone else used either didn't work or didn't specify where it exactly goes.

However if I straight up gave up I wouldn't be here.

[Imperf3kt]

In addition to this forum and the documentation, I would recommend PyTom's Patreon.
https://www.patreon.com/renpytom

PyTom regularly posts guides, tutorials and other information about Ren'Py which are guaranteed to be up to date.
If you don't want to pay, all articles are available for free after three months.

[sasquatchii]

When it comes to learning Ren'Py (for me at least) the best way to learn has been through trial and error. I usually try to make something in Ren'Py (either for a game, a project I'm working on, or sometimes even just out of pure curiosity) and go as far as I can with it until I get stuck.

I then will usually search the lemmasoft forums to see if I can find an answer to the thing I am stuck on (specifically the Ren'Py Questions and Announcements Forum which has already been mentioned in this thread). This place is basically a treasure trove of information. If you're confused or getting stuck somewhere chances are someone else probably has had the same problems you're wondering about, and someone else on here has already helped them work through it. I've learned so many things about working in Ren'Py just by reading through old posts on the forums.

And when all else fails, you can always just ask people on the forums! People on here are quick to respond and try to help.. whenever I post a question I usually hear back from someone helpful within a day!

As a side note - I've also learned quite a bit from the F*ck Yeah Ren'Py Tumblr - which has a ton of tutorials though sadly hasn't been updated in years.